Unqualified teachers should be able to learn on job, says Nick Clegg

Thousands of unqualified teachers should be allowed to stay in the classroom while working for their certificates, Nick Clegg said today.

The Deputy Prime Minister is demanding that all teachers hold a standard certificate but denied it would mean some 15,000 unqualified staff already in schools being kicked out.

Instead the Lib-Dem leader said the teachers should be offered a grace period of “learning on the job”.

Labour immediately accused Mr Clegg of “hypocrisy”, arguing that Coalition policies were to blame for schools employing unqualified teachers in the first place.

It comes after Mr Clegg clashed earlier this week with Tory Education Secretary Michael Gove after saying free schools should not be allowed to hire unqualified staff.

Mr Clegg said: “If you are giving teachers and head teachers more freedom as we should, how do we then at the same time give parents the reassurance that regardless of what a school is called... there are some basic core standards?”

He added: “I’ve got no problem at all with unqualified teachers seeking qualifications... while they’re learning on the job.”

Annaliese Briggs, 27, was appointed head of Pimlico Free School but quit earlier this month after facing criticism for having “no teaching experience”.

Meanwhile Al Madinah, the free school in Derby, was closed temporarily after an official report condemned teaching standards.

Labour said it would table a motion in the Commons next week setting out proposals requiring all teachers to be qualified and challenge Mr Clegg to back it. A spokesman said: “Nick Clegg is locked into the failure of the free schools programme. It’s his policies that have led to the mess we are seeing and we will expose his hypocrisy and posturing.”